The Battle of Marengo scenario - 098. The Battle of Marengo - 098_Marengo_HTH.scn - is easily my most balanced scenario I have ever designed. In all of the playtesting it usually ended in a Draw or Minor Victory. You would have to get two players of unequal ability to play it to get a Major Victory OR if one player does something exceptional great!

Remember that the armies were basically similar in size. The French have Desaix showing up later in the day. So .....

The French need to play a game of "give ground but not too soon and do not lose too many troops doing it" type of a strategy.

The Battle of Rivoli scenario - 056. The Battle of Rivoli - 056_Rivoli_HTH.scn - again, another fun one to play. Again, the French are outnumbered to begin with but the Austrian columns are spread out and fixed to begin the game. Bonaparte arrives to save the day with forces and its going to be a matter of whether the French have avoided losing too many forces as to whether they can win.

The Battles of Castiglione ... ok, there are two of them. The more famous battle is:

027. The Second Battle of Castiglione - 027_Castiglione-2_HTH.scn

The French usually will win this one. They have the Austrians outnumbered and out-positioned. Thus I include two variants. Take your pick! The purist will play the Historical scenario to try it out. The addict will find one of the variants they like and play that one.

The largest map in the game is "Quadrilateral-Extended.map." I thought I was finished with the game this past weekend but on Monday I noticed I had not gotten to this map to fill in more terrain detail. I also found a road that ended in a field!

I spent 11 hours Monday and Tuesday going over this map. New farms/orchards were added. Etc.

I want to spend more time on this map. Its never really going to be "done" and I hope to update it over the next year and include it in an update. There is just so much area ... the left map edge has a large impassable area ... its really not a problem. None of the battles were fought there. I would like to add in the remaining area some day. There is also a lot of impassable terrain in the upper elevations. This is not only due to the "26 level barrier" in the map editor but also for the fact that it just wasnt someplace that the troops used.

There are several large scenarios that use the map (some or all of it). One is for the Castiglione operation and the other is for the Arcole operation. The Rivoli operation was mainly confined to the Battle of Rivoli map ... if the French had lost there wasnt anything stopping the Austrians from getting to Mantua.

YES! I loved reading through "Eagles over the Alps" by Duffy but really Enrico Acerbi's articles on the various battles helped me immensely. For instance, Enrico told me that the entire village of Magnano got moved. It was not at its present day location.

Vaprio-Cassano, Tidone-Trebbia, Novi - these are the main battles for Suvorov in the game. Trebbia was a crowning victory. The Allies force march from Marengo and other parts along the Po River to help turn back the French advance.

A big thanks to the Graphics Team of Mark Adams and Joe Amoral in adding in new terrain artwork. I enjoy the new woods, orchards and fields hexes. There is a new "Gate" hexside artwork too. Buildings have a Italian look to them. The 2D chateau terrain now has a small wall connected to the building. Many of the farms in Northern Italy are like small fortresses.

Comment on the Orchards as used in the game: you are going to find that you have LOS through these. Dont be confused. They represent anything from orchards to vineyards in the scenarios. Often I put a map tag "Vineyard" on the map to help.

If its Marengo - the vineyards will block LOS. This represents the hanging tapestry type of vineyard. If the LOS is not blocked - this is the typical lower style vineyard.

Fields - if the scenario takes place after June 10 the fields block LOS. This was true at Marengo (14 June) where the Austrians had more guns but the terrain limited their use to some degree.

The Quadrliateral Extended map will remain my crowning map masterpiece .... its the "military important" map I think I have created. A big thanks to Fabio Fogato (who lives in Mantua) for his help on "getting things right" in the Mantua area. I believe I have a lot more work to do on the map. No map is ever really "done." If you find errors with the maps remember that I had no access to the battlefields and I rely heavily on the sources I can find or are sent to me. Bill Peterson's Rivoli pictures were nice to reference!

My favorite scenarios were the 1799 battles depicting Suvorov's lightning campaign through Northern Italy. Until we began researching the 1799 Campaign I had not fully appreciated Suvorov's amazing accomplishments. Although his Russo-Austrian army was generally outnumbered, he won EVERY battle by out maneuvering and out marching the French. A great "what if" of this period is what Suvorov could have accomplished if the Austrians hadn't balked at his plan to follow up his victorious campaign by invading France.

Took a closer look at the Quadrliateral Extended map & scenario....wow! That is really, really impressive Bill! A real gift to us who enjoy playing the games.....such diversity too....I love that there are small naval vessels as well....

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